Generally an image pops up on social media that halts my scrolling thumb instantly. I’ll gawp at it for just a few seconds, and if I discover it humorous, I’ll let loose an amused puff of air by way of my nostril. Then I’ll ship it to another person, so that they can also really feel the identical rush of feelings.
This previous week, it was an image of Tom Pidcock that set me on that well-trodden path. Properly, it wasn’t Tom Pidcock, per se. It was Tom Pidcake, a dessert incarnation of the Ineos Grenadiers rider.
It’s the identical image that, I think about, led you to click on on this text. For all of the current information tales about Pidcock, his turbulent relationship together with his employer, and rumours of his future, this was the headline that grasped my consideration most. It got here courtesy of our associates at Biking Plus journal, whose designer, Georgie, had baked the homage.
The resemblance is, um, placing, in a method. This can be a cake that captures a second in time. In case you had been hoping that second was the enjoyment of successful mountain bike Olympic gold, or a stage on Alpe d’Huez, this cake just isn’t for you. No, the second it captures is correct now.
It’s the portrait, the drained visage, of a person worn down by speak about his future. The likeness, in that sense, is uncanny. There’s a desperation within the eyes, and fatigue within the black strains beneath them. It’s a fragile facial features, one that claims: “Please cease asking me about Ineos and simply let me hang around with my two mini dachshunds.”
I, for one, love this cake. The world of biking could be very severe at occasions, and the off season provides us an opportunity to let our hair down – in Pidcake’s case, hair that’s tidily coiffured, and generously utilized to the chin.
I’m determined to understand how the cake went down within the Biking Plus workplace. There are such a lot of inquiries to which I want solutions. What flavour was the cake? Is it life-size? What was probably the most wanted slice? And, maybe most significantly, whose gateau bust can we count on to see subsequent? Georgie, in the event you’re studying this, please contact me on my electronic mail beneath.
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Elsewhere on social media this week, Mark Cavendish exhibits off his Gen Z lingo, Alison Jackson dons stiletto biking footwear, and Dan Bigham receives the honour of turning on the Christmas lights.
1. Neglect Colin the Caterpillar, it is Tom Pidcake time
It is Bake Off day within the workplace. Our designer Georgie has made @tompidcock or Tom Pidcake as she’s calling him… pic.twitter.com/bClxkWbRNJNovember 19, 2024
2. Mark Cavendish has glorious rizz (did I exploit that proper?)
3. Stiletto biking footwear, coming to a membership 10-mile close to you
4. Here is Lorena Wiebes, European street champion, scratch race world champion, and chief member of the Lotte Kopecky fan membership
5. That is an correct illustration of what it feels prefer to cycle within the UK in autumn
6. It is good to see I am not the one one reluctant (see: too stingy) to place the heating on
7. God save our gracious monitor sprinter, lengthy stay our noble monitor sprinter
8. These two have 4 Excursions de France, 42 stage wins, and two snuggly blankets between them
9. I hate to interrupt it to you all, however that is what the opposite café-goers consider us
10. Questioning how Blaine Hunt made the King giggle? Surprise no extra
11. Of their off season, cyclists prefer to wind down by attempting to run extraordinarily quick
12. And at last, to start out getting us within the Christmas spirit, here is Dan Bigham realising a lifelong dream of turning on the Stafford lights show. Anticipate to see him develop some lever-pulling aero gloves for subsequent yr
